Going to have a period of time for some mudita practice.
Just to say a little bit that you know really well aware that this practice can be quite a challenge.
It can challenge us in ways that it feels selfish,
Particularly when we bring feelings of wishing well for ourselves and it can also bring up all kinds of feelings around is this escapism.
And maybe you know we can just understand okay so it challenges certain things,
It challenges certain ideas and patterns of behavior that we're used to doing or feel right.
But you know let's see,
Let's see for ourselves,
Let's do it and try and test like okay am I more escaped now or am I more available?
So try not to you know work it out in your head and just see and try your own experience or you know is it selfish to sit here for you know 45 minutes out of one day or maybe it's out of you know one week you know how much time do you normally do this?
And then see you know does that make me more available for people or less available when I feel however it is you feel after doing this practice.
So a few ideas that might be helpful,
So medita literally you know seems to mean joy,
Something like joy.
But it might be easier for us to more focus on the appreciation than on the joy,
Is there joy here or not?
As a practice it might make more sense to think about am I appreciating what's here,
What's unfolding?
So it's rather than trying to make joy you know we're just practicing the appreciation and see if from appreciation maybe a certain kind of joy starts to come into being arising from that appreciation.
The appreciation,
The gratitude,
The enjoyment of the presence of something.
So in our life you know there's time for sadness,
There's time for appreciating what's not okay and feeling the will to do something about it but in this practice we're purposefully changing patterns of behaviour so that we go against what maybe is kind of biologically strong within us or socially learned.
So when you do that it's not going to be easy all of the time.
So as you know in this practice we'll sometimes be using what we would call skilful verbal fabrication,
Skilful use of words.
But what makes words useful is that they are like vehicles,
They can carry emotions,
They can carry feelings.
And when I do metapractice and medita practice and also how I guide it is that I really try to feel the meaning of the words,
Feel what they mean.
And so it might be useful for you that you have like a long kind of phrase and Zara offers us and the ones we'll use here quite long phrases but it might be enough that you just make it one word,
Whatever that would mean.
May the joy I experience continue and grow.
I might be delightful.
It might just be grow.
Yeah.
More kind of complex English words we could use for that kind of like flourish or bloom,
Flowers bloom.
May it bloom.
May your joy bloom.
Or it can just be rejoice.
May you rejoice.
May you enjoy.
May you flourish.
And so you know use the words that make sense for you.
Someone shared recently just saying it's great that you have this,
That kind of appreciation.
So making it accessible for us.
And then in making it accessible,
Let that touch you.
Let it touch us.
Let it spread.
Just feeling like what do you appreciate right now?
Let's start off.
Before we go into phrases and beings and all of that side,
Just feel into it right now.
What do you appreciate about this moment?
Could be that there's time to practice,
Time in your life.
So many demands in your existence that you can't have a bit of time for meditation.
To have the free time to do a retreat,
To have the conditions to make a retreat at home.
Could go even simpler.
The ability to breathe.
That there's another in-breath.
And that in-breath is also able to become an out-breath.
If you've ever had difficulty breathing you'll actually realize just quite how joyful it is just to be able to breathe.
As we breathe,
Maybe there can be this feeling that the level of appreciation is just able to increase.
You want to do something more unusual to see if you can actually breathe appreciation.
So you're not breathing air,
You're just breathing appreciation.
Maybe there's also some subtle or quite profound appreciation to be reasonably well right now.
Maybe our condition could be worse.
Reasonably well in the body,
Reasonably clear in the mind.
So aware that we're aware.
We can continue listening with appreciation that there are sounds,
That there are sensations.
And maybe what we hear is actually appreciation mostly.
What we breathe is mostly appreciation.
So seeing if we can stay with what's present and what's unfolding and just keep appreciating or maybe we could even say enjoying or even rejoicing in a breath,
In the ability to hear.
Or rejoicing in the presence of a sangha of support.
Juicing in the existence of meditation,
Of Dharma.
Welcoming that sense of appreciation,
Tuning to what's available,
What's good.
And just seeing what would it be like to allow that to grow,
That sense of appreciation.
Let's just take a few minutes in silent practice together.
With more attention on the appreciation than on the joy.
Just letting the joy,
If there's any,
Come from the appreciation.
Religious introduction.
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Something that's happened in their experience recently that you feel is worthy of appreciation for them or for you.
Something wholesome perhaps.
Something that opens them,
Opens their heart,
Opens their life.
Even if it's just a little bit.
Letting this being be welcomed into the heart,
Into the mind.
Find some other way into your awareness.
With a sense of appreciation for their existence.
Letting them rest with you.
Wishing for them naturally to wish to enjoy what's enjoyable in their life.
May you learn to appreciate the joy you experience.
Whether that's joy or it's just an okayness or it's just a slight opening.
May you learn to appreciate that.
May you learn the joy of appreciating that.
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